I don't normally post something like this -- especially leaving it publicly viewable. However, I think I will post this without comment.

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October 20, 2005 - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announcedthat his office will specifically target "bestiality, urination,defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" in pursuingnew obscenity prosecutions. The Department of Justice began recruitingin late July for a new anti-obscenity squad to pursue obscenityprosecutions, and the FBI announced in September that it was formingan anti-obscenity task force to crack down on pornography.

Any website that has content containing "bestiality, urination,defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" should beforewarned that prosecution is possible. Additionally, Federalsentencing guidelines state that any obscenity-related punishmentshould be "enhanced for sadomasochistic material."

Forty people and businesses have been convicted of obscenity since2001, and 20 additional indictments are pending according to AndrewOosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation andobscenity section. There were only four obscenity prosecutions duringthe eight years of the Clinton administration.

Though adult content is, in theory, protected by the First Amendment,only a jury can determine if a work is obscene or not under thesubjective set of standards that vary from one community to the nextestablished in the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Miller v. California.

Text is not inherently more protected than images when it comes toobscenity charges. The erotic fiction website Red Rose Stories isfacing obscenity charges after federal agents raided the owner's homeon October 3rd, taking computer equipment and diskettes that containedall of their files and site information.

The Department of Justice is clearly hoping that websites willself-censor or remove their content entirely. Midori, a fetish modeland SM educator who teaches classes on bondage, has removed herwebsite, BeautyBound.com, citing fear of obscenity prosecution. Theowner of three SM websites, known as GrandPa eSade, removed hiswebsites from the Internet. SuicideGirls.com also announced they areself-censoring their materials over concerns about a possibleobscenity crackdown.

Recent prosecutions of obscenity on websites include: A former policeofficer in Lakeland, Florida, was arrested on October 7th on over 300obscenity-related charges for the sexual content posted on hiswebsite. The same day, webmaster Chris Wilson, owner of amateurwebsite NowThatsFuckedUp.com, was raided on charges of obscenity by alocal Sheriff's office.

"I think it's crucial for us to stand up for consensual sadomasochismand other alternative sexual practices," says Barbara Nitke, fetishphotographer. "This is a battle worth fighting, and I hope everyonewho can will just censor out the most provocative material from theirwebsites, but keep them up. I also appeal to the lawyers in ourcommunity to help us find ways to keep people's websites up."

Barbara Nitke and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF)have proactively challenged federal obscenity laws as applied to theInternet, arguing that obscenity laws based on "local communitystandards" are too vague and their existence burdens protected speech,resulting in self-censorship due to the fear of prosecution. Adistrict court three-judge panel in New York ruled that while Nitkeand the NCSF members were at risk, more proof was needed thatobscenity laws cause otherwise protected speech to be restrainedthrough acts of self-censorship. The case is currently on appeal tothe United States Supreme Court.

"The effect of silencing alternative lifestyle speech was exactly whywe brought the lawsuit," says attorney John Wirenius, lead counsel forNCSF. "The self-censorship we are seeing underscores the importance ofsupporting our ongoing obscenity challenge."

I find it curious, perhaps ironic, that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approves of the use of torture in the interrogation of suspected terrorists while prosecuting the depiction of sexualized bondage between consenting adults. Maybe what he objects to is the sexual aspect and not the torture itself. If this is the case then he is being a hypocrite, because the deliberate torture of possibly innocent people is an obscenity greater than the mere depiction of "... bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior."